Feasts Quotes

“Fools make feasts and wise men eat them.”
― Benjamin Franklin, Fart Proudly: Writings of Benjamin Franklin You Never Read in School

“Champagne arrived in flûtes on trays, and we emptied them with gladness in our hearts... for when feasts are laid and classical music is played, where champagne is drunk once the sun has sunk and the season of summer is alive in spicy bloom, and beautiful women fill the room, and are generous with laughter and smiles... these things fill men's hearts with joy and remind one that life’s bounty is not always fleeting but can be captured, and enjoyed. It is in writing about this scene that I relive this night in my soul.”
― Roman Payne

“... food is not simply organic fuel to keep body and soul together, it is a perishable art that must be savoured at the peak of perfection.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

“Death devours not only those who have been cooked by old age; it also feasts on those who are half-cooked and even those who are raw.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Use and Misuse of Children

“The living have no place at the feasts of the dead.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

“The great chestnut-wood tables groaned under the weight of platters, trays, plates, dishes and bowls. The whole Feast was here, John saw. Every word in the book, every fruit in the gardens, every green thing that grew, every creature that ran or swim or flew. John felt his demon creep forward as a great wave of flavors and tastes washed through him, those his mother had shown him on the slopes joined with others he had never sensed before. He could smell the rich tang of the meats. His head swirled from the steaming fumes of the wine. His jaw ached from the sweets which rose in heaps on silver platters while honeyed syllabubs shivered in their cups. He felt the pastry crunch, shiny with beaten butter. He heard the sugar-pane crackle. The sweetmeats flooded his senses, banishing his hunger and cold. A great procession of dishes floated up out of the pages, all theirs.”
― Lawrence Norfolk, John Saturnall's Feast

“They began with a winter soup, lovingly cooked in a copper pot with a shinbone left over from Sunday lunch-
But the witch brought in a light bouillon, simmered with the sweetest of baby shallots and scented with ginger and lemongrass and served with croutons so crisp and small that they seemed to vanish in her mouth-
The mother brought in the second course. Sausages and potato mash; a comforting dish the child always loved, with sticky onion marmalade-
But the witch brought in a brace of quail that had been gorged on ripe figs all their lives, now roasted and stuffed with chestnuts and foie gras and served with a coulis of pomegranate-
Now the mother was close to despair. She brought dessert: a stout apple pie, made to her mother's recipe.
But the witch had made a pièce montée: a pastel-colored sugared dream of almonds, summer fruit, and pastries like a puff of air, all scented with rose and marshmallow cream, and served with a glass of Château d'Yquem-”
― Joanne Harris, The Girl with No Shadow

“You give a whole lot of respect to food when you know what hunger is capable of.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Night of a Thousand Thoughts

“Turkey is the main course in more Christmas dinners than any other meat or fowl. The high proportion of meat to unusable bone and fat makes it an ideal bird for a feast. Turkeys were domesticated in Mexico long before Spanish explores found them and introduced them into their homeland. From there they spread throughout Europe and gradually replaced most of the native Christmas feast foods.”
― Patricia Del Re, The Christmas Almanack

“There was roast hog, of course, braised mutton, and casserole of the tenderest beef. Platters of trout and salmon gleamed like treasure, dressed with mint and parsley sauces. Dishes of glossy prunes and dates shipped from an unknowable country sat amid roasted apples, delicate custards, and jewel-colored jellies.”
― Paula Brackston, Lamp Black, Wolf Grey

“Kai and I head back into the kitchen, where the platters and trays are set up. Grilled vegetable skewers with a lemon dressing. Beef tenderloin, roasted medium rare, sliced thin, with a grainy mustard sauce. Orzo salad with spinach, red onion, and feta. Filled cucumbers and pickled carrots. White beans with sage. Saffron risotto with artichokes and chicken. Mini pavlovas and poached pears and poppy-seed cookies.”
― Stacey Ballis, Good Enough to Eat

“Who feasts when the banquet doors are locked from the inside?”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“Everyone who could cook had cooked:
Carrots that tasted like candy. Asparagus coated in a creamy yellow sauce. Potatoes prepared six different ways--- fried, roasted, baked, twice-baked, and cooked with cheese and with cream. Fish flavored with herbs that Terlu couldn't even name but tasted beyond delicious. A few dishes weren't her favorite, like the mussels in butter that Yarrow loved but reminded Terlu too much of slugs, but she loved the dish with squash cut into noodles mixed in a nut-flavored sauce, as well as a sweet carrot bread made by one of the uncles. And Yarrow had prepared her favorite, the layered zucchini, squash, and tomato dish he'd perfected.
They ate, they talked, they laughed, they sang, they told stories, and they danced.
Above the greenhouse, snow fell lightly as the shortest day of the year dipped toward nightfall. When desserts were brought out, everyone oohed and ahhed. Yarrow's sugar glass with flavored roses was proclaimed the star, but there were also berry pies (Terlu contributed a blueberry pie) and cakes and cobblers and an amazing peach tart (Yarrow's grandfather's recipe). And of course, chocolate-covered oranges.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, The Enchanted Greenhouse